Winter Flying

333C is almost ready to go:



Almost. The tailwheel needed to be inflated a bit. The snow berms being what they were, there was no way I could get my car close enough to the tail in order to use my electric tire pump. So I had to move my car to another place on the field and then taxi over there.

Those snow piles are down a good foot from what they were two weeks ago.

I am glad that I had been keeping up with clearing the tiedown and the airplane after each snowfall. Even if I couldn't always get every bit of snow and ice removed, I moved enough so that one warm day was all it took to finish the job. There were pilots out at the airport this time shoveling snow away from their airplanes, while all I had to do was preflight and go flying.

It hit 50degF here today. It was warm enough that I removed my cheapo winterization kit from the oil cooler. The landscape was still covered with snow, though.



There has been enough snow this winter that a day or two of 50 degree temperatures isn't going to change that. But it has been nice that there has been a break from the weekly heavy snow storms that ran through from Christmas to the end of January.

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Today was supposed to be sunny with strong and gusty winds. The winds died down early this morning. I went to the airport, got most of the snow and ice off the airplane. The Sun did the rest and, while that was happening, I cleared enough of the tiedown to taxi out. That was fun, including freeing the tailwheel from about half an inch of ice.

Took two hours of work, but I got it done. I went to the cafe to rest, had a couple cups of coffee, glanced over the newspaper and then I went flying! I flew for about 1.5 hours and got in three landings.

No photos, unfortunately, I left my camera home.

First flight in a month, too.

Ugh.

I went to the airport on Sunday, removed 95% of the snow and ice that was on the airplane. I also shoveled out the tiedown (again).



You can see in comparison to the pictures in my earlier post that the snow berms are getting pretty damn high.

Yesterday, we had about a 1/4" of ice in this area. Even with the engine running and heating the windows, it took me 15 minutes to remove enough ice from my car to be able to drive safely.

I hate to think how long it will take to remove that much ice from my airplane. And more is forecast for Saturday.

This winter is kicking my ass.